Simon Jenkins writes a twice-weekly column for The Times. He also writes a weekly column for the London Evening Standard. He has edited both the London Evening Standard and The Times and written books on politics and on the history and architecture of London.
Simon Jenkins was born in 1943 and educated at Mill Hill School and St John’s College, Oxford. He began his career on Country Life magazine he then worked for the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Evening Standard, edited the Insight page of the Sunday Times and was editor of the Evening Standard from 1976-1978. He was political editor of The Economist from 1979-86 and went on to found and edit the Sunday Times Books section, where he also wrote a weekly column. He was editor of The Times from 1990-92. He has in addition served as a board member of British Rail (1979-90) and London Transport (1984-86), Deputy Chairman of English Heritage (1985-90), was voted Journalist of the Year in 1988 and Columnist of the Year in 1993. Served as Chairman of the Independent Commission on Local Democracy (1994-95) and is currently a member of the Millennium Commission (1994-). His latest book, England’s Thousand Best Churches, was published by Penguin in October 1999. Simon Jenkins lives in London and is married to the actress Gayle Hunnicutt. They have one son.